Pretense
by The Cabbage man's legacy
Summary: Konaha was once a city renouned for the excellent Ninja that it once produced as of now though it is just a popular tourist attraction and there are obviously no real ninja still lving there today because that would just be ridiculous, wouldn't it?
1. Hypocrite

I've wanted to write this story for a while now, so here it is my amazingly 'original' idea! Characters might be a bit occ…

Summary:

Set in a modern day Konaha: Sakura's a ninja under cover, living in a world where few know of their existence, she has to go to School and pretend to be normal. For being revealed can only mean death. In this city where 95 of its people are normal, you can never let your guard down, not even for a second.

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Konaha, a city once renowned for it's excellent ninja, has now become one of the biggest Tourist attractions in the land of fire. It was always busy and now that summer had finally come along, the tourists where coming in by the bus load. The lights of Cameras flashing everywhere, as everyone rushed to be the first one to see the stone where all the great hokage's faces were engraved.

A young girl slipped between the crowds unnoticed, she was taking a risk and she knew it. But her thoughts were concentrated only on her goal and she knew that the tourist's eyes were too slow, they would never see her. Even if she stood right in front of them, she knew that her concealment technique would make sure that she went unnoticed. Too the untrained eye, she was invisible.

Finally she had arrived at her destination; she looked up at the stupid sign which hung over the large building. How distasteful, she thought. The sign was huge and had tons of pictures of weapons on it, the weapons made up these four words 'Welcome to Ninja high'. She could have laughed at the names stupidity, so embarrassing, as if a Ninja would state their location so clearly. Tourist's, it was all for the sake of those Damn tourists.

Those tourist's were responsible for everything, they were the reason that she had to live in secrecy in her own town. They had twisted the powerful meaning of the word Ninja and had turned it into a franchise of plush toys and blow up weapons. 'Ninja' was now a word only used by little children playing stupid games. It was no longer a word that was revered and feared, just part of little child's fantasy.

The girl clenched her fists, she wanted to tear that stupid sign to shreds, and then force feed every scarp of paper into the mouths of all those stupid tourists who had taken away the Ninja's former glory. But she stopped herself, just as she always did and stepped through the door and into the school.

"Hi Sakura" another girl called, waving at the pink haired girl. Sakura smiled and waved back.

"Hi Hinata, I believe you owe me 10 bucks" said Sakura, smiling greedily "I got here on time didn't I?" she held out her hand and the other girl handed her the money.

"You're sure you didn't cheat Sakura, you know, by doing things you're not supposed to…" said Hinata, trailing off at the look on Sakura's face. "Oh, I'm sorry Sakura I didn't mean to suggest, I mean I know you wouldn't…" Hinata stared at her friend nervously, waiting for her to speak.

"Remember where you are Hinata!" said Sakura, looking cross for a moment." You know better than to talk about such matters with other people around, you've got to be more careful"

"I'm sorry Sakura, but I didn't think that anyone would be able to guess what we were talking about just from the word cheating…" said Hinata quietly. Sakura's face softened at the look of panic on Hinata's face.

"Maybe I was being a bit paranoid" Sakura admitted "And I have to say that I did not cheat! Using one's abilities, to the fullest is not cheating!" she said laughing.

"But Sakura doesn't that mean that you did-"the girl was interrupted by Sakura before she could Finnish.

"Sorry Hinata, but I've got to go, the bells about to ring! See you at break" shouted Sakura, as she ran away, before she was forced to give the money back. Hinata was just left there, standing there, with plenty of time to think about Sakura's hypocrisy.

"So much for being 'careful'" she mumbled to herself, before heading to class.

Meanwhile Sakura was rushing to her locker; she needed to get all her books out before the bell rang. She realised that, she shouldn't have gotten so sidetracked with Hinata, now all her efforts on getting to school on time had become a waste!

As soon as she reached her locker, she got out her key and pilled all her books into her bag; she didn't have time to check which ones were actually needed.

"Ring, Ring" Damn it, she thought as she heard the sound of the bell echo through out the halls. The hall was now almost empty, only a few stragglers were left all of them rushing desperately to their classes; it wasn't long before she was the only one left.

Finally, having scoped her lockers entire contents into her bag, she closed her locker. When she suddenly heard a loud crashing sound coming from the other end of the hall. She slung her bag over her shoulder and ran in the direction of the sound, hoping that no one was hurt. She felt for the Kunai in her sleeve, hoping that it wasn't an enemy attack. She got to the other side of the hall with lightning speed, Kunai in her hand, ready for the attack.

But what she saw was not an enemy attacker; it was Naruto, a worthless student. Who seemed to be stuck under a pile of books. Slowly the boy stood up and brushed himself off.

"Oh, hey Sakura, what that thing you've got in your hand?" he asked. Sakura quickly hid the kunai up her sleeve, too fast; she was sure for the idiot to notice

"What are you talking about?" she held out her now empty hand "there's nothing see?" she said smiling, hoping the blonde would buy it. The boy continued to stare at her hand suspiciously.

"But, I'm sure I saw something…"

"Must have been your imagination" said Sakura smiling "Did all your books from your locker fall on top of you? You should try and be more careful!" Sakura paused for a moment to look at the time "I'm sorry Naruto but I'm going to be late, see you later!" Sakura then rushed off, leaving Naruto on his own, to pick up his books.

"Damn hypocrite" he said to himself "She's the one who needs to be more careful! What kind of idiot carries a knife around in school?" Naruto put the last of his books into his bag, making sure that none of the Kunai were sticking out of the front covers. Every single one of his text books had a kunai hidden inside of the cover, carefully sealed, just encase of an emergency. He spotted a Kunai that had fallen on the floor, he picked it up and twirled it around his finger. That girl isn't the only Hypocrite around here, he thought, smiling to himself.

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If you like this please review, then I'll know that there's a point in me continuing this story.

I'm sorry about the chapter being so short; I'll try to make them longer in the future.

PLEASE REVIEW!!


	2. Mocking me

Last chapter was shorter than what I usually do, so I'll try to make this one longer...

Disclaimer: This belongs to Seishi Kishimoto's brother.

This is in NO WAY a Naruto X Hinata story; I just thought this was a good way to sort of introduce him.

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The cafeteria was busy as usual, everyone pushing in front of each other as they tried to skip the queue. It was a normal scene, there was nothing strange about it, but to Hinata-who was completely on her own, it seemed daunting.

She scanned the room with her sharp eyes, hoping to see someone she recognized, but she knew it was in vain. Ten-Ten was on a mission with Kiba and Sakura had detention for being late to class, there was no one she could sit next to…At least not comfortably, there were lots of people who she had sat with before, like Sasuke, Shino and Neji. She had sat with them all plenty of times, though only with Sakura or Ten-Ten…they weren't _her_ friends, she decided, it would be best not to bother them. She made her way to the back of the hall and sat down on an empty table and began eating quietly by her self.

"Hey Hinata" Called a loud voice, Hinata recognizing the loud voice began to blush deeply, she couldn't help it; Naruto always seemed to have this effect on her.

"Hello Naruto" she mumbled as she began fidgeting with her fingers. "Why are you here?" she asked, her face turned downwards.

"Well" he said as he pulled up a seat opposite her "None of your usual friends were here, so I thought I'd give you some company" he said smiling. Seeing him smile, Hinata couldn't help turn an even deeper red, 'he has such a beautiful smile' she thought absentmindedly. She then smiled at another thought that popped into her head 'he came to sit with me!'

"Why don't you just sit here anyway Naruto?" she asked quietly, already knowing, before the words even left her mouth, that it was a stupid question.

"You know why Hinata, it's because half of your friends don't even know me!" he paused for a moment, to eat some of his ramen, before continuing "Only that stupid Sasuke and Neji know me!"

"Rock Lee knows you too" Hinata added.

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that youthful guy but he doesn't count, he's been in hospital since that time he surprise attacked me" he said, not seeming to care that it was his fault that a fellow shinobi had been injured.

"None of that would have happened if you had just told him who you were…"said Hinata quietly. "I've never understood why you don't make your fellow shinobi aware of your presence"

"Well that's an easy one to explain, I want to be Hokage one day and to do that all shinobi must know of me and my power. There should be no need for me to tell them who I am, they should just know. I don't want to get fame and glory by bragging all the time, is pretty much what I'm saying" he said smiling.

Hinata stared at him in admiration, ever since she had known Naruto (when she was little); she had never doubted for a second that he would someday become Hokage.

"It's also a lot more fun, to watch them sweat as they try to figure out who I am" he added, ruining the effect of his previous words.

Just then Sakura suddenly appeared in front of the two "hey Hinata, sorry I took so long, but you know what that idiot Irukas like" she stopped when she noticed Naruto's presence "what's he doing here?" she asked, quickly taking note of Hinata's fidgeting and overall red colour. She smiled, so this is the guy Hinata was talking about, she had to admit that he was pretty easy on the eyes, but as for the rest? He was just a civilian, nothing special, compared to her gorgeous _and_ talented Sasuke he was nothing.

"Hinata looked lonely so I came to sit next to her; you got a problem with that?"

"Not really" said Sakura as she sat down next to Hinata "I just didn't know you two knew each other, there's no need to get so defensive and anyway why are you here? You must have showed up to class even later than me, how come you didn't get didn't get stuck with detention?" asked Sakura, irritated that the blonde had somehow managed to get away with it.

"Dentist" he said, casually.

"What?!" asked Sakura, confused by his answer.

"Oh didn't you know? I'm a master of forgery, its easy for me to whip up a note in my guardians handwriting" he said flashing her big smile. Sakura intrigued, began asking him questions about how he accomplished these feats of mastery as she ate her meal-Which Hinata noticed was identical to Naruto's, Ramen, orange juice and a cookie in the shape of a ninja. Hinata watched the two speak with such ease and couldn't help but feel a little envious of Sakura; it had taken her years before she had been even able to talk to Naruto.

After Naruto had finished explaining how to forge a note, Sakura began asking him about his personal life.

"You said 'guardian' earlier on, does that mean you're an orphan or something?"

"You got it right I'm an orphan"

"so what happened to your parents?" Sakura asked casually.

"Wow asking someone you barely know such personal questions, you really are something aren't you Sakura?"

"Oh I'm sorry I didn't mean to pry…" said Sakura, realizing that she may have gone a little too far.

"Nah, I'm fine with it, its better than having people looking all sad about it and saying something like ' I'm so sorry' when they don't even know anything about it. My parents got murdered only a few hours after I was born, I don't have a single memory of them. I'm used to them not being around" he said, not sounding in the least remorseful. Sakura's eyes narrowed and her gaze turned cold, she didn't take kindly to people who had no respect for family.

"look at the time Hinata, we better start heading to homeroom, so we don't end up late" said Sakura hurriedly. Hinata knew straight away the reasons for Sakura's actions, many of the young Ninja in Konaha had lost family; after all being a Ninja was a dangerous line of work. It happened to be that Sakura had lost her parents when she was 10. Hinata sighed, wishing that her friend could be more tolerant of others beliefs.

"Goodbye Naruto" she said softly before following her friend out of the cafeteria.

Once they were both outside of Naruto's hearing, Sakura began to speak.

"You know this is why I hate civilians, all they ever do is talk about stupid things"

"But Sakura -"

"So arrogant and cocky, doing stupid childish things like forging notes. Any well trained Ninja could forge a note, but that doesn't mean we go around abusing our powers! I was only listening to his explanation out of kindness" said Sakura. She thought back on what she'd just said: _any well trained Ninja could forge a note_, for some reason those words bothered her.

"But Sakura, didn't you yourself once say that if your homeroom teacher wasn't a Shinobi you'd be forging notes all the time?" said Hinata.

"Come on Hinata, lets go, I don't want to be late again" said Sakura, clearly ignoring what Hinata had just said.

Later after school Sakura went to the town hall, for her weekly training with the Hokage (lady Tsunade) and was informed that she had a mission in a week or so, it was nothing special, she just had to be one of the escorts for the Kazekage, who would becoming for the Chunin exam ( something Sakura herself had completed a few years back).

There would be three of them in total, though Tsunade had only decided on two of the group so far Sakura and Sasuke. The mention of Sasuke's name had of course excited Sakura, though she wasn't very happy about the fact that she wouldn't know who the other member was until the mission. Tsunade said she ad someone in mind, who had met the kazekage previously, but wasn't sure if there was a higher ranked mission which she could use him for. This information made Sakura very interested, since the Kazekage mission was A ranked. She had asked Tsunade who the person was, but Tsuande had told her that, that information was on a need to know baises.

Sakura had then slipped out of the office and gone home. Once home Sakura went out into the forest and practiced throwing Kunai at falling tree leaves completely unaware of the presence of another person, who watched her until she packed up and left. This person stayed in the woods for a long time after a look of disappointment written clearly on his face, the girl had made so many mistakes. No.1 being that she hadn't even noticed his presence, No. 2 being that she had practiced with Kunai out in the open, where anyone could have been watching. _How disappointing_, thought the blonde boy. He had expected more from Tsunades student.

Just as this thought crossed his mind he heard a rustling sound behind him.  
"I know your there, so theres no point in running away, I knew you were there the entire time" came the sound of a steely voice. The boy smiled, he had under estimated her, she was a lot better than he had expected her to be, most people couldn't get that close behind him without him noticing. Though she had made the mistake of speaking, which had alerted him of her presence. The boy quickly cast a shadow clone Jutsu, then put a transformation of the girl herself onto it. The shadow clone headed in the pink girls direction was a distraction and one that was effective, while the girl fought with herself the boy slipped away through the forest. Laughing as he thought of the girls predicament.

"Damn it" Sakura muttered to herself"I can't beleive I let him get away!" she shouted, punching a tree, that was instantly knocked over by her super strength. She could swear the forest was mocking her as she was sure she heard the faint sound of laughter filtering through the trees.

...  
it was short again (sighs)

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	3. Stalker

Sakura stood in front of her master, Lady Tsunade, irritated by the woman's laughter and apparent inability to take the situation seriously

Sakura stood in front of her master, Lady Tsunade, irritated by the woman's laughter and apparent inability to take the situation seriously.

"I don't see what's so funny about this, it's serious there is an enemy in the area, if we don't act soon then-"she was cut short by Tsunade.

"Stop Sakura please, just don't say anything more" the woman let out a chuckle "I think I know who this 'enemy' is"

"You do?" asked Sakura surprised "then why hasn't he been caught yet? Why aren't we out there-"

"Just listen okay; you said he used a clone jutsu, right?" Sakura nodded "Well then I'm guessing it's your other partner on your mission in a few days, he was probably testing you. That shadow clone jutsu is one of his signature moves" said Tsunade sighing "I can't believe he's done it again though and being careless enough to get caught…I'm going to have to punish him later"

"Tsunade… exactly who is this guy? I mean you said he'd met the Kazekage, that he was more suited for higher level work…And now this?" asked Sakura perplexed. She really wanted to know, for this person to have such high favour in the Hokage's eyes, he had to be something special.

"He's just some blonde haired brat, about your age, he's Jiraiya's apprentice, you've met Jiraiya before haven't you Sakura?" said Tsuade casually, knowing full well the impact her words would have on Sakura, after all her old friend Jiraiya was pretty well known. Sakura of course new who Jiraiya was, the great toad sage, one of the legendary Sanin, like Tsunade, he was a legend among the villagers. It had even been said that he was he first person, to be requested as the Hokage, Tsunade had been their second choice. To be such a great master's apprentice, this person would have to be a truly awe inspiring ninja of unimaginable prowess.

"I see.." said Sakura, her eyes glowing as she imagined such a great person, he would be a handsome tall blonde, she decided, with chiselled features ,a person with an air of mystery… "But what about him meeting the Kazekage?" she asked.

"He met Garra at the Chunin exams a few years back, they fought against each other, you were there at the same time weren't you?" she asked smiling, already knowing the reason for Sakura's lack of knowledge.

"You know I failed in the first round of the fights…" she said quietly, her head bowed down in shame. Sakura looked over to the clock on the wall, it was getting late, she should probably be heading home.

"You can go now Sakura" said lady Tsunade, having noticed Sakura's sideways looks at the clock "I'll see you in two days time, Friday five o'clock, for your mission briefing" Sakura, taking this as a dismissal left the room leaving Tsunade supposedly on her own.

"You're a sneaky little brat aren't you" she called out, to the seemly empty room "So tell me kid" she said smiling as the blonde dropped down from the ceiling "What do you think of my student?"

"Well she's pretty hot" the blonde boy said smiling.

"You idiot! You know that's not what I meant!" said Tsunade slapping the boy across the face.

"Your only say that cause your Jealous, old hag" these daring words were followed by a loud crash and bang.

"So you were saying Naruto?" she said, her evil smile chilling every bone in Naruto's body.

"Easily swayed, naïve, family issues, likes the dark brooding type, uses Neiva shampoo, trains after school everyday, likes the colour pink, uses pink hair dye, good observance skills… Oh and I think she can be a little arrogant" said Naruto, listing all the things he had found out about Sakura over the last couple of days.

"Naruto" said Tsunade quietly,te sound of her voice suggesting that violent thunderstorms were in the weather forecast.

"What old lady?" asked Naruto, oblivious to the on coming storm.

"HOW THE HELL DID YOU FIND OUT ABOUT HER BRAND OF SHAMPOO!!" she screamed "I knew it was a mistake letting that old pervert watch over you! Now you're being turned into some kind of perverted stalker!"

"Don't compare me to pervy sage! I'm nothing like him! Take it back!" he shouted.

"Then what exactly are you? If not a stalker, you've been following her around for the past few days, that's called stalking!" 'Damn it!' thought Naruto 'she's got me there'

"No it's called observing" said Naruto, proud of his comeback.

"You're sounding more and more like him every minute" she said, sighing. "I can't stand this anymore get out of my sight, I don't want to see you until Friday" she was tired of fighting with persistent kids and still had work to do; she didn't have time for this. When she next looked up Naruto was gone, she had to admit, he was good.

Meanwhile Sakura was sitting down doing her homework, thinking about the mystery person on her team. She had forgotten to ask Tsunade who had won out of the match between Garra (the Kazekage) and Jiraiya's apprentice. It must have been Garra, she decided as she put away the essay she had been working on. There's no way he could have beaten the current Kazekage, no way.

The next mourning Sakura managed to get to school early, without, as Hinata would call it, cheating. Once at school she went in search for Hinata, surprised to find her, once again with Naruto.

"Hey Hinata, Naruto" she said smiling brightly as she walked towards the two "what were you two just talking about?" she asked

"Hinata here was telling me about your crush on Sasuke" said Naruto sniggering "I'm not really surprised though all the shallow girls seem to like him"

"Are you suggesting that I'm shallow?" asked Sakura as she tried to keep her voice from rising.

"No he wasn't, right Naruto? I'm sure he didn't mean anything by it" said Hinata timidly in a desperate attempt to stop her friend from losing control in front of all the people around them.

"Yeah, I didn't mean anything by it" he said smiling as he took note of the girls clenched fists, he didn't want to cause a scene and if that girls punch was anything like Tsunade's he'd probably be knocked unconscious. It would be better to not risk it he decided. Just then the bell rang and they all headed to class.

Once in class, after greeting a few of the civilian girls, she sat down. Seeing Sasuke in front of her, she poked him, trying to grab his attention.

"What do you want Sakura" asked Sasuke irritated at being disturbed.

"You know we have that mission on Friday?"

"Yes, what of it?"

"Well do you know who our third team mate will be?" she asked

"Some idiot called Naruto, what of it?" asked Sasuke. Naruto, he'd just said Naruto! 'It couldn't be' she thought to herself. Not that Naruto, it could be another Naruto, there was no way it could be him! Sasuke turned away from Sakura back to the front, having gotten bored of waiting for a reply. Sakura just continued wondering whether or not she and Sasuke were thinking of the same Naruto, it wasn't that uncommon a name, though Tsunade had said he had blonde hair… She ended up thinking about it the whole day, in the end she decided to follow Naruto home, to see if he did anything suspicious.

The silently followed him home and even waited outside of his apartment for an hour to see if he would do anything, nothing happened at all. Bored, Sakura went home, Sasuke had probably meant a different Naruto she decided. She got home and opened her door, seeing a slip of paper on the floor she picked it up, it said:

_Hey Sakura!_

_Hope we can have fun on our mission on Friday!_

_Naruto_

_P.S It's rude to follow people home :P_

'So he knew' she thought grimly, 'he must have left the house when I wasn't looking' she thought, irritated that she had been deceived so easily. She crumpled up the piece of paper, trying to the look on the bright side of things; at least she knew who was on the mission on Friday.

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Instead of getting longer my chapters are getting shorter…

I wonder if I should change my summary, I'm not really sure if the one I have up at the moment is any good…

PLEASE REVIEW!!


	4. Mediocre at best

The early birds chirped as the sun rose, their irritating noise making Sakura toss and turn as she tired to block the noise out

The early birds chirped as the sun rose, their irritating noise making Sakura toss and turn as she tired to block the noise out. It had woken her up an hour ago and now she couldn't get back to sleep. People said that sound of birds chirping in the mourning of something to be blessed, in Sakura's opinion it was something to be cursed. The damn birds had been waking her up early for a week now and she was getting sick of it.

She stared at her alarm clock; it was five to seven in the mourning, in a few minutes her alarm would go off and then she'd have to get ready for school. She'd have to see Naruto… What would she say to him? After being made a fool of do thoroughly, how could she possibly face him? She didn't know and for the moment she didn't care. The birds had stopped making a racket; it wouldn't hurt if she just had a few more minutes sleep…

Sakura ran as she rushed towards her home room, she'd over slept and now she was late again. Luckily the bell had only just rang and her home room teacher was late, so she managed to get in just before her teachers arrival. She sat down next a brow haired girl called Yuuki, panting from having literally run all the way to school.

"Late again Sakura?" said the girl next to her smiling "Its weird, you've been doing that a lot recently"

"Well I've had a lot on lately…" she said.

"Yes, but still it's surprising, you used to be such a goodie two shoes back in middle school, perfect grades, perfect attendance, always looking your best, you had all the boys after you"

"You know everyone wonders what it was that happened to make you change so much, ever since you were off school for a weeks when we were 12, you've been different"

"Oh do they now?" she asked, realising the girl was fishing for gossip, everyone at the time had wanted to know about her 'disappearance', she'd said she'd been sick, though really she'd been taking part in her first Chunin exam.

"Yes they do, they also wonder why you stopped hanging out with the rest of us and started hanging out with that weird bunch" Sakura raised an eyebrow at this, it seemed that the girl was either trying to pick a fight or was just plain stupid.

"You're saying Sasuke's weird?" she asked incredulously, smiling as she watched the girls face fall.

"No! Of course not, everyone knows that he just hangs out with you lot out of pity, he doesn't even talk to you or anything!" Sakura smiled as if Sasuke would ever treat anyone with pity.

"So have you ever talked to Sasuke?" Sakura asked pleased at the look of distress that suddenly appeared on the girls face.

"Well I…That is to say…" just then Sasuke leaned over to Sakura's table.

"We'll be meeting outside the bench" he said, his face looking as disinterested as usual, before turning back to face the front. Sakura mouth curled into a smug smile at the look on the girl's face. She'd obviously assumed that they were on a date of or something, she couldn't have known that Sasuke was talking about the meeting place for the mission the next day. Sadly it wasn't a date but at least she would have time to spend with Sasuke! Thoughts of Sasuke and the mission then reminded her of Naruto. He had humiliated her and made her look the fool, what would Sasuke say if he found out how easily she'd been tricked?

She walked into lunch and found to her relief that Naruto wasn't there sitting down next to Hinata, she wondered if the other girl knew about him being a ninja, it wouldn't be surprising considering the fact that she liked him so much, she would have asked but she didn't want Hinata to think she was falsely accusing her of anything if she was wrong. She went through the rest of the day without seeing him; she could only hope that this would keep up until the mission the next evening. Sadly things don't always go as planned.

While Sakura walked home she was stopped by an elderly couple who wanted her to take a picture of the two of them, next to the old stone which had names of all the supposedly long dead ninja of the past written on it, though most of the names had been recently added, there were many blank blocks around the city which were soon filled with the name of the deceased. She thought it was disgraceful of the old couple to want to get their photos taken next to a statue of memorial, but agreed to it all the same. Smiling she took the photo then handed back the camera to continue walking home.

It was not long after she had left the couple that she noticed she was being followed. Having a fairly good guess as to who it was she continued walking pretending not to notice. Once outside her house, which was on the outskirts of the village in a fairly deserted area, she called out.

"If you want to say something to me then jut say it, I'm tired of being stalked by some complete idiot" turning around she saw Naruto, he was now standing right in front of her. Feeling a bit put off by his sudden appearance, she was at loss as to what to say.

"I just wanted to talk to you, I wanted to apologise for following you around so much" he said unconvincingly.

"Well it's a bit hypocritical to say that when you jut followed me home" said Sakura angrily.

"Now that I think about it you my have a point" he said thoughtfully scratching his head.

"I don't even care so much about you following me around it's the silly little game you've been playing with me, do you really think I'm not strong enough to work with you?" she asked her voice sounding surprisingly desperate. For all her problems with the person standing in front of her she had to admit that she admired him, all the things that he'd been doing in the past few days were not things that any ordinary ninja could do and all the things that Tsunade had said about him had let her with a feeling of deep respect. Tsunade didn't hand out praise easily. She didn't want this person thinking that she was too weak.

"Of course I thought you were strong enough! And I still do, your strength is almost as crazy as Tsunades!"

"Then why were you following me around?" she asked, sounding less hostile than before.

"Well… I was trying to find the right time to ask you out Sakura" Sakura punched Naruto, knocking him out cold, went inside her house and closed the door behind her, Leaving Naruto's unconscious body outside. She was irritated because the idiot had lied to her; she knew there was no way he had been following her around just for that.

Naruto woke up with his body aching all over, _she sure does pack a punch_, he thought irritably as he touched his stomach which was still tender from the when she'd hit him. Standing up slowly, he wondered what he'd done to make her so mad. Okay he wasn't stupid, he knew what he'd done, he jus thought she'd over reacted a little that was all. He should have just been truthful and said that he'd first thought that she wasn't up to the job.

Her performance in the Chunin exams had influenced him into thinking that she was weak, but she'd obviously changed a lot since then. It was after all about 3 years ago now since he'd seen her jointly lose to Inoue. Both girls' performances were mediocre at best and even though the two of them had both showed a lot of determination, he doubted either would have been up to the following round. Of course at the time he wasn't thinking like this, just marvelling at his good fortune of getting to see a chick fight.

But the few days of watching her and following her around had proved him wrong, she was strong exceptionally so. She seemed quite a fun person to be around if a little temperamental. He now only had one problem on his hands, how the hell was he going to get her to stop hating him?

Sakura peeked out of her window to see if Naruto was still there, seeing much to her relief that he had gone. It seemed that she hadn't done too much damage and she hadn't spilled any blood, so that was good, though there was probably a lot of internal bleeding. She was happy that he wasn't hurt, though kind of pissed that he'd left before she got a chance to get a proper answer out of him.

Well she'd have plenty of time to yell at him and demand answers when they started their mission tomorrow, which would be lasting 3 days.2 of which wouldn't really be part of the mission, just the amount of time it would take to get to the city, they'd be going on foot, since they didn't want to attract attention and it was easier to fight that way encase of enemy attack. The way back would be taken part of the way by car, and then they'd get out and split into three groups, two of the groups would have people of the sand, guarding a shadow clone of the Kazekage. While Sakura, Naruto, Sasuke and one member of the sand would guard the real Kazekage.

It was one of those pointlessly long complex missions that if not executed properly could end in disaster. She was proud of herself for being selected to be on such an important diplomatic mission. She only wondered if she'd be able to cope working with a person like Naruto, though Sasuke's presence more than made up for it. She looked out the window one more time before heading to bed, hoping that the idiot was suffering from his wounds.

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Someone said to me that nothing much ever happens in these chapters and I'll have to say I agree, once the mission starts I'll try make things more interesting.

PLEASE REVIEW!!


	5. Uzumaki

Sakura looked around, nervous as she waited for the other two to arrive. She'd been early in getting to the meeting place and had had plenty of time to think about how she'd hit Naruto the night before. She knew she was pretty strong normally, but even using her own chakra to strengthen the blow…It had been too much, any normal person, she was sure, would be bruised, finding it difficult to even stand without wincing, for days. _He might even have a broken rib or two,_ she realised, with horror. It was her job to fix people, not break them. Trying to reassure herself she thought of other things.

Sighing she sat down on the bench, putting her big hiking bag down besides her. People outside Konaha always found it strange that so many people seemed to have such an in interest in hiking in the small village; little did they know the real reason behind it, just another cover up, to make travelling easier for the local ninja.

She glanced at her watch, it had now been 5 minutes since their designated meeting time, and there was still no sign of the others. If they didn't get going soon, they'd have to miss out on any breaks and just keep going till nightfall, though she guessed that if it was Sasuke he'd have his reasons for being late…

She Closed her eyes for a moment, in frustration at the thought of such an important mission already going wrong from the start, opening them again she got the shock of her life when she saw Naruto standing right in front of her.

"What the hell are you doing?" she squeaked, trying not to give away the fact that she was unnerved by his sudden appearance. She really wished that he wouldn't always just appear like that, it was creepy!

"Doing what?" he asked as he sat down next to her, without seeming to be affected by the hit he'd taken the day before._ Maybe he went to the hospital and got himself fixed up,_ was her passing thought as she quickly forgot about worrying for the idiot.

"Being so late" she said, trying to think up an excuse for her outburst. It would be embarrassing to admit that the exclamation had just been a reflex action because she was shocked. "It's half past already" she said, as she looked at what he was wearing, black and orange…Wasn't the point of this mission to look inconspicuous? Any enemy's that might approach them would see him a mile away! She herself was wearing a dark short skirt and a black sleeveless shirt, which was easy to move in and practical as it didn't stand out.

"Um is something wrong with my face?" he asked as Sakura scrutinised his wardrobe, a look of disgust on her face.

"Nothing's wrong Naruto, it's just as ugly as usual" she said dismissively as she turned away from him to glare at some tourists passing by, who quickly hurried along, seemingly terrified of Sakura's gaze.

While Sakura scared off any passers by Naruto looked at the ground, unusually gloomy, Sakura hated him, Sasuke was coming and worst of all was that Tsunade had said the other one had to come as well, though she hadn't yet told the other two. He understood of course why that person had to come, but found it depressing that they still had so little faith in his own control. He'd gone away for nearly three years to try and master control, but in the end the situation hadn't gotten any better, in fact it had gotten worse just as it had with all his other predecessors as they had gotten older.

'_The seal weakens with time'_ was the constant reminder of Jiraiya and he was sick of it. He looked up when he heard a loud cry from Sakura.

"Hello Sasuke!" she said her voice simpering as she went up to him noisily chattering but obviously being ignored.

"Why doesn't he get his head bitten off for being late?!" Naruto asked angrily.

"Because I'm sure Sasuke has a good reason" she called as she slung her bag over her shoulders. "Okay, I think we should go now" she said taking a step, but Sasuke put his hand in front of her, telling her to stop.

"We need to wait for the idiot's keeper" he said, a slight smile curving at the edge of his lips when he saw the look of irritation on Naruto's face.

"Naruto has a keeper?" she asked curiously "That doesn't surprise me, he needs one, you can tell from the way he's dressed" this comment earned Sakura a nod of approval from Sasuke and she wondered if she'd be able to bring them closer because of their mutual dislike of Naruto.

"Hey! Don't just talk over me! I'm right here! He is not my keeper, why did you assume that I was the idiot anyway?!"

"Because you are one, moron, even and an idiot like Sakura can see it" said Sasuke coolly, not seeming to notice how much his words had affected her.

_So he thinks I'm an idiot? I'll show him! By the end of this mission he'll be dazzled by my amazing intellect!_ She thought,her eyes glowing withenthusiasm. She turned back to look at the two and saw to her surprise that Sasuke was actually arguing back… Well it wasn't like he was being passionate about it like Naruto but it was still strange, Sasuke normally just ignored the other person if they started a fight.

"He is not my keeper!" Naruto shouted.

"No he's just someone who has to follow you around whenever you go on a mission and makes sure you don't get nasty…Wait that sounds like a keeper to me" said Sasuke.

"It's not like I want him around!" he replied frustration evident in his voice.

"Yet still I come" said a man as he walked towards them on the driveway, his jacket covering the bottom half of his face like a mask. "Please try to remember where you are, talking so loudly amongst other people can be _extremely dangerous"_ Naruto stared at man in horror, remembering the last time he had been punished for being too vocal out in the streets.

"Why are you here?" she asked trying to swerve the man's attention away from Naruto, who seemed uncomfortable under he strange man's gaze.

"To make sure Naruto doesn't do anything stupid on this mission, can't have an Uzumaki dying on my watch" Sakura stared at the man for a moment in disbelief; Naruto was related to the great 6th Hokage, the greatest Hokage to ever live? She supposed it did explain why he'd been called Naruto, though the name wasn't very uncommon, but to be part of the family famous for it's huge chakra reserves and skill in the arts of wind elements…As well as the awesome legend of the demon fox that surrounded the family. It was hard to imagine someone like Naruto belonging within such a great family. She'd been so disrespectful to him without thinking of the consequences.

"Oh I see that explains it" she said, looking down at the floor. Sasuke looked at Sakura with disgust, there were two reasons why his friend didn't speak about his family, and this was one of them. And after the way she'd been treating him he'd thought he'd been seeing real potential for an actual worth while human being.

"Let's get going Yamato" said Sasuke, his voice commanding authority "We won't get there on time if we keep lazing about "he said as he walked towards the exit of Konaha.

Naruto walked next to Sakura "For all Sasuke's faults I have to admire him for being able to tell that guy to do things without getting the _stare_" he said, bracing himself for another snide remark or comment.

"Yes that is amazing" she said her voice strained with patience as she tried to be respectful.

"Yeah it is amazing" he muttered under his breath before moving forwards, to catch up with the other two.

"I wish you hadn't said that" said Naruto as he caught up with the others.

"She'd have found out eventually" Yamato reasoned.

"I know, but it still bothers me" he said as he continued forwards, getting ahead of Sasuke and Yamato.

Later when they had set up camp, Naruto sat next to Sakura and talked to her for a while.

"Stop it" he said suddenly.

"Stop what?" she asked.

"Stop being so nice, it's weird! I'd prefer you insult me then say all these kind and civilised sounding things. I don't see why my family should make any difference to how you treat me. I prefer you as you are normally, treat me like crap, I don't care, just as long as you don't keep up with this stupid pretense" he then stood up and sat down next to Sasuke.

Sakura stared at him for a few moments, puzzled by what had just happened, but mostly puzzled by her own feelings. Why did she feel so glad and relieved? Was it because she was happy that she was free to insult him again? Or was it simply because he was beginning to grow on her? He was a hard person to dislike and that irritated her.

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Nothing happened again…

Sorry it took so long, for any of you that care but I went away for a week to east wittering and have overall since then been to lazy to update till now, hope you enjoyed it. Please review!


	6. Invisible wounds

It was early the next morning when Sakura woke up, the sky still dark as the sun hadn't fully risen. She listened to the quite sound of her companions breathing for a few minutes as she tried to remember where she was, afterwards she slowly got out of her sleeping bag, trying not to wake the others and feeling a little cold she decided to take a small walk away from camp.

As she walked along, kicking up leaves and scaring off small animals, she wondered what meeting the Kazekage would be like, it would be strange to be protecting someone so important from another country…

"Hey, Sakura!" Sakura jumped, when Naruto suddenly swung down in front of her, hanging upside with his feet firmly attached to the tree branch. It was annoying, why couldn't he just appear the same way most normal human beings did, instead of sneaking up on people.

"What are you doing up there!" she hissed, managing to recover herself faster this time, a little more used to his sudden appearances.

"Just hanging…I thought that that was pretty obvious" he said, smiling at the sudden look of irritation on Sakura's face "But you know I think I'd be more worried about myself if I were you, what if some idiot came along and started hassling you?" he asked, his grin growing wider as he let go of the tree, landing next to her.

"I'd deal with them of course!" she replied irritability, fed up with Naruto's fooling around; she headed back to the camp.

"I was being serious Sakura, its dangerous to wonder alone!" he tried calling after her, only to realise that she was already out of sight.

Sighing, he also began to walk back to camp, already planning the next way he would be surprising Sakura.

Once he was there he was greeted by a series of rebuttals by his team mates who were all ready to leave. He grabbed his own stuff, which he'd already prepared before he'd left the camp to annoy Sakura; they were ready to set off.

It wasn't long after they'd set off that Naruto realised that someone was approaching, how did he know this? The shadow clone he'd sent ahead had been killed; he guessed he should probably alert the others but decided to wait; the person seemed pretty weak, making him think they wouldn't be a threat if they attacked.

A few minutes passed and soon they were passing the area his clone had 'died' and then as if right on cue a Kunai was thrown in his direction. He had been right, the ninja was weak, the Kunai was thrown slowly and he caught it easily. Everyone else became tense at the idea of an incoming attack and they looked around with caution. It was only then, when he noticed Sakura and Sasuke share a look of understanding that he felt uneasy.

They were on a trip to escort Kage, wasn't this a bit too easy? Just as he was pondering this Sakura smashed her fist against the ground, making the ninja come out of hiding, while Sasuke took care of him with his fireball jutsu once the enemy of in the air. It was only a few seconds before the water clone disappeared that he realised what had happened. The real enemy was behind them, Yamato, who had realised this a little sooner than Naruto called out to the others to warn them but it, was already too late, they were surrounded by mist.

"Damn it" he shouted, angry at himself for not warning his team mates sooner, if Sakura got hurt because of this!

He quickly created some shadow clones to find a way out for him, while he himself tried to listen closely to any sound that would tip him off if someone was approaching. He could hear the others fighting, though they seemed far off. Hearing the sound of footsteps behind him, he reached out his arm to a nearby clone about to form the Rasengan, when a hand grabbed his wrist, stopping him.

"It's me, you retard" he heard Sasuke say "Try and learn to tell your friends from your enemy's!" Naruto's smile was hidden by mist as the Rasengan formed in his hand.

"I'll try and remember that!" he said, shoving the ball of energy into the enemy's stomach, making the man cry out in pain as he fell, crippled, to the ground. Naruto looked down at the man curiously for a moment as he watched the illusion automatically dispel, before beginning to slowly start making his way through the mist. Wondering how the hell the ninja had known who they were and why they'd even bothered considering that they didn't have Garra with them, to him all of this seemed a bit pointless.

He'd seen no sign of Sakura so far, hopefully she was alright…

Because of his absentmindedness, Naruto carelessly ran into the enemy, unable to react fast enough because of his carelessness, he suddenly felt a piercing pain as a long knife was plunged into his left leg. Wincing, he quickly tried to move away from his attacker, cursing himself for being such an idiot. He tried to stagger away from the enemy, blindly moving forward in the mist, hoping desperately that his shadow clones would distract them. He'd had wounds worse than this as long as he was able to get enough time to rest, he'd be fine… The mist was beginning to thin anyway; soon he'd have help from the others.

He just needed to calm down and think rationally as long as he stayed calm things would be just fine…

While Naruto was struggling with the pain in his leg, Sakura was defeating anyone who came across her with relative ease, soon finding her way out of the mist to meet with Yamato.

"Should we go back in and help them?" she asked, but Yamato shook his head.

"No, they're perfectly capable, they should be out in a couple of minutes, it would be unwise to go back in there" she nodded and it wasn't long until both Naruto and Sasuke appeared, both of them covered in blood.

"Are you both ok?" she asked "Are there any wounds you want me to treat?" they both shook their heads, stubbornly.

"We're fine" they both said in unison, glaring at one another when they'd realised they'd said at the same time.

"Okay then, enough time wasting, lets get going" said Yamato, as though what had just happened had just been a short detour and he did look completely unchanged by the event, not having a scratch on him.

Everyone seemed relatively unharmed, if only a bit messy from blood of the enemy staining their clothes, there was only one thing that bothered her. The awkward way that Naruto stood on his legs, he seemed fine though and he wasn't complaining, so it probably wasn't something to worry about.

"So why do you think they came after us?" Naruto asked, once we they on the move again. Sakura rolled her eyes at his stupidity.

"Its obvious, so they could take out identity's and attempt to fool the Kazekage" she explained, sounding like a no it all. For a while longer they continued travelling and the longer they moved the more she couldn't take her eyes off it. She was sure she could see a difference in Naruto's movements and the more he moved, the more she was certain something was wrong with his left leg.

It wasn't until they decided to take their last break before entering the Village of Sand, that she confronted him about it.

"Hey Naruto" she said, sitting down next to him as he took a drink of water "Let me take a look at your leg" Naruto spluttered for a few moments and she realised that he may have take in the wrong way "I think your left legs injured" she amended "Can I take a look at it?" it was a simple question and she was surprised by his reply.

"My legs fine" he said forcefully, now gaining the attention of the other two, who were now looking at Sakura unhappily.

"Well I still want to-"

"If he says its fine its fine, leave the idiot alone" Sasuke interrupted, making Sakura almost consider that Sasuke might be jealous, that was until she saw him and Naruto exchange a strange conspirational look.

"Just let me look at it!" she said, leaning down, pulling up his trouser leg so that she could see any injuries. Well it seemed she had been right, there was a large bandage covering his thigh, ignoring Naruto's protest's she peeled away the bandage. It seemed he'd received a shallow knife wound but it was nothing serious.

"See its nothing" said Naruto, sounding strangely tense, considering the situation. Irritated she begrudgingly gave Naruto some fresh bandages, unable to understand where she'd gone wrong. She'd been sure that there had been something seriously wrong and had ended up embarrassing herself when it had turned out to be a minor wound.

By the time they'd set off again she was in a horrible mood, snapping even at Sasuke when he told her to hurry up. It wasn't often that she was wrong and the incident and badly hurt her pride, the 'mystery' of his wound just couldn't help but eat at her.

It wasn't long after the break that they began to notice that the scenery was becoming more barren and it was soon after that they realised that had finally arrived in the Sand village. But it seemed that entering the village might end up being harder than actually getting there.

This was because the village _hidden_ in Sand was not open to the public like Konaha and was in fact hidden by an illusion to set ordinary people astray. This did mean though that they had to spend a long time being checked in by the guards, who had to make sure that they weren't imposters. After about an hour of waiting around they were finally let into the village and led to the Kazekage's buildings.

Sakura couldn't help but notice how few people there were in the village, which was really a village, compared to Konaha which was quite a large town. There were barely any people about and she couldn't help but think that living in such a place would be lonely…

Soon they'd arrived in the Kazekage's rooms and they were all greeted by him formally, well almost all of them. Sakura was nearly shocked out of her mind when she saw the Kazekage shake Naruto's hand, like he was greeting an old friend. Which didn't make any sense considering that Konaha had only made the remade the peace treaty with the Sand a little over three years ago. Once they were dismissed to go rest for the night, Sakura found herself even more stunned.

"See you later Garra" Naruto had said casually as he'd left the room and the Kazekage had responded with a more formal title!

"Goodbye Uzumaki-kun" she couldn't help but stare at Naruto in disbelief, why the hell was a Kaze treating someone like Naruto which such respect? She continued to shake her head, amending to ask him about it later.

"You know he wouldn't tell you" said Sasuke as he walked past her, heading to his designated room "He doesn't look showing off over stupid things like that" She watched Sasuke walk past her, deciding that Sasuke probably didn't hate Naruto after all.

Later on she went into Naruto's room to give him some anti-septic for his wound.

"Hey, let me see your leg" She said tiredly, not having much enthusiasm, having been on the move for the whole day.

"I told you its fine now!" he said, with the same edge to his voice that she'd heard earlier.

"Well I have plenty of Chakra to spare now, so I might as well heal it while we're here" she said, something in her voice seeming to hint at another reason for her caring. She pulled his trouser leg up again, this time at bit awkwardly as she realised no one else was around. She tore of the bandage and then saw something which surprised her, the wound was gone, there wasn't even a scar…

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Bit of an awkward ending but at least I updated… Well not much happened... and the action sequences sucked...


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